Little things make big differences

Savneet Bhasin, a Graduate from Mumbai University, nurtured a deep desire to bring an awakening and transform the lives of many. The turning point in her life was an incident that firmed her decision. She once went to a Municipal School in Mumbai where she saw a man entering the school to seek admission for his 7-year-old daughter. The Principal himself took her interview and test and concluded that this girl could be admitted in either Hindi or English medium. On checking the fees, the father realised that there was a difference of Rs. 50 per quarter between both the mediums. “For that amount, which we believe to be very small, that girl was about to be put into Hindi medium. That was when, I realised how a small difference can so delicately have an enormous impact on our future,” says Ms. Bhasin who decided to bring about differences in lives by honing the soft skills of both the underprivileged children and young women.

‘Train for India’ and ‘Unnati’ were initiated in 2017 with a mission to instill Public Speaking skills to underprivileged children (Train for India) and provide soft skills training programme for underserved urban women (Unnati).

“According to World Economic Forum, Public Speaking is one of the most important skills that would be required for a wide variety of jobs. Their report highlights that a good speaker is focussed, confident, acquires reasoning skills, eloquence and can persuade others to their point of view. It is predicted to have higher demand across industries than narrow technical skills. This all led to the building of “Train for India”, a campaign in which professionals from tall over the world spend few hours helping underprivileged children to learn to talk with confidence and help them to become future leaders,” says Ms. Bhasin.

Public Speaking intervention sessions

‘Train for India’ is aimed at providing public speaking intervention sessions to underprivileged children across the country. Says Ms. Bhasin, “Education has not kept pace with the moving times. We still send our children through a fixed set of primary and secondary education steps, and a college degree for acquiring the best jobs. The model does not actually prepare any child for the real world.” Considering the importance of public speaking in shaping the future of children, ‘Train for India’ prepares the children to face the challenges they may encounter and equips them with oratory skills they shall need to face the competitive environment of future world.

Likewise, Unnati has been launched to empower women and help them have equal access to opportunities. “Growth of a woman in a household has a direct impact on family, society and work. This results in a huge positive enhancement of productivity of the economy,” says Ms. Bhasin.

At Unnati, women learn various vocational skills that enables them to respond to opportunities, challenges and to change their life circumstances.

The sessions are held for four weeks in a month of two hours’ duration where the women learn to capitalize on their strengths, learn the value of diversity in business, social etiquette, importance of body language, improve communication skills, gain confidence, learn to overcome stage fear etc. There are also sessions on time management, learning to use technology to manage multiple tasks and to cope up with stress by way of meditation and breathing techniques. The women are given sessions on health and nutrition as well as on social media networking to enable them to learn to expand their contacts and influence and build business.

Ms. Bhasin (standing behind 3rd from Right in pink shirt) and the team

“Skill development is the most important instrument for human resource development. It predicts success in life. Similarly, better skills help in boosting confidence while communication clarity results in more prosperity through business and profession,” she adds.

A unique feature about Unnati is that all women trained under it have to mentor 3 other girls/women thereby increasing the potential.